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Meghan Markle’s parents have been the subject of much scrutiny since her engagement to Prince Harry was announced in November.

While her close relationship to her mother has been documented in the media, with Meghan taking her mum to events and rumours surfacing last week that she even wants to snub tradition and have her mum walk her down the aisle, her relationship with her dad is not as well known.

Divorced when she was six, Meghan is Thomas Markle and Doria Ragland’s only child.

However, they released a joint statement following the announcement of Meghan and Harry’s engagement on Monday 27 November, suggesting they both still play a key role in Meghan’s life.

The statement read: ‘We are incredibly happy for Meghan and Harry.

‘Our daughter has always been a kind and loving person. To see her union with Harry, who shares the same qualities, is a source of great joy for us as parents.

‘We wish them a lifetime of happiness and are very excited for their future together.’

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But it’s not just her immediate family who have made headlines, as Meghan’s extended family from her father’s first marriage have proved somewhat controversial since she was linked to His Royal Highness Prince Henry of Wales.

Here’s all you need to know about Meghan’s family…

Prince Harry’s father-in-law: Thomas Wayne Markle

A former TV lighting director, Meghan has credited her father as being a huge influence on her TV career.

Having worked on shows such as Married… with Children and General Hospital, Meghan has previously told of her set visits after school to see her dad while she waited for him to wrap up.

Meghan Markle is said to be very close to her dad (Picture: Daily Mail/SOLO Syndication)

Thomas won two Emmys for his team’s work on General Hospital and was nominated for countless others.

Meghan is his only child from his marriage with Doria but he has two older children from his first marriage to Roslyn Markle.

Now, Thomas – who is of Dutch and Irish descent – lives a quiet life in Mexico and filed for bankruptcy in 2016.

Meghan has described her dad as ‘hardworking’ and ‘caring’ and is close to him.

She has paid tribute to ‘the blood, sweat and tears this man (who came from so little in a small town of Pennsylvania, where Christmas stockings were filled with oranges, and dinners were potatoes and spam) invested in my future so that I could grow up to have so much.’

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She added: ‘It’s safe to say I have always been a daddy’s girl – he taught me how to fish, to appreciate Busby Berkeley films, write thank you notes, and spend my weekends in Little Tokyo eating chicken teriyaki with vegetable tempura.’

However, whether he will be invited to the wedding isn’t known, with his son revealing this week that he will be ‘extremely hurt’ at Harry’s comments during their engagement interview of how the royal family are the ‘family she’s never had’.

Prince Harry’s mother-in-law: Doria Ragland

Meghan and her mother, Doria Ragland, at the Invictus Games closing ceremony (Picture: Tim Rooke/REX/Shutterstock)

Meghan is also extremely close to her mother, Doria Ragland.

The actress says she was taken to visit slums in Jamaica and Mexico when she was just 10 by her mother, keen to raise her daughter as a global citizen..

‘My mother raised me to be a global citizen, with eyes open to sometimes harsh realities,’ Meghan once said.

Doria, who is African-American, met Thomas on the set of the US soap General Hospital, where she temping in the studio.

‘I like to think he was drawn to her sweet eyes and her Afro, plus their shared love of antiques,’ Markle once wrote.

Prince Harry chats to Doria during the Invictus Games closing ceremony in September (Picture: Canadian Press/REX/Shutterstock)

They divorced when Meghan was just six and while she stayed with her mother in Los Angeles, she still regularly saw her father.

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She has previously worked as a yoga therapist and at a day centre for adults with memory loss. She filed for bankruptcy in 2002.

Luckily, it seems Harry is fond of his mother in law, with pictures of them laughing and talking during the Invictus Games closing ceremony in Toronto in September.